A Grave Injustice

A Grave Injustice

Mark 14:43-52

Good morning.

Here in America, we have certain rights and laws pertaining to false arrests.

An article about false arrests on a legal encyclopedia website asked the question, “Is False Arrest a Crime?”

“In many states, false arrest or false imprisonment are crimes.

An unlawful arrest case is a civil lawsuit that usually asks for the "remedy" of damages.

In most false arrest cases, a successful plaintiff can collect two kinds of damages: special damages and general damages.”

In Jesus’ time, Roman citizens had many rights but, non-citizens within the Roman Empire, especially the Jewish people, did not enjoy the same rights and freedoms as Roman citizens.

Please open your Bibles to Mark 14, as we continue in our line-by-line study of Mark.

Last time we were in Mark, we learned how Passover dinner was over, and Jesus and His disciples made their way to the Mount of Olives.

Jesus went to a secluded place to pray, and He instructed the Disciples to go sit and pray as they waited for Him.

Jesus took just His inner circle of followers with Him to pray, as He showed the importance of prayer and reliance upon God.

Jesus left His closest friends behind. He went on to pray, yet at each break He took from prayer, He found His Disciples sleeping.

Gethsemane was a garden outside the city, across the Kidron Brook on the Mount of Olives. The name Gethsemane means Olive Press, and it was a very remote, walled garden.

Jesus drank the cup of God’s wrath on the cross, as He took the burden for all sin, for all eternity.

In today’s passage, we will see the final betrayal of Judas while Jesus was still in the Garden of Gethsemane.

I. The false arrest.

Read Mark 14:43-46

We ended last time saying, Jesus did not receive the answer He initially requested, (let this cup pass from me), but instead the Father gave Him strength as the answer to be able to endure.

Once Jesus received strength from the Father, He was ready to face the hour at hand and so He went out to meet His betrayers.

The agony of Gethsemane was now behind Jesus but the reality and brutality of His arrest, false trials, beatings, and the cross were about to take place.

Right after Jesus said, “My betrayer is at hand”, this section begins with the words, “Immediately, while He was still speaking”, Judas came with others from the Chief Priests.

The religious leaders of Israel were known as the Sanhedrin, and they were made up from three groups.

The Chief Priests who led the nation in worship, the Scribes who were the Bible scholars of the nation, and the Elders who were charged with the spiritual welfare of the nation.

The arrest of Jesus, the One true Messiah and King of Israel, was ordered by the religious leaders of Israel.

In the same narrative in John, we are told this great multitude was actually a battalion of troops, about 600 men. We are not told whether these men were temple guards or Roman soldiers.

Some believe that since Jerusalem was under Roman authority the Jews did not have organized armed soldiers of their own.

So, they believe the religious leaders went to the Romans and procured soldiers from the Antonia Fortress to arrest Jesus.

Judas brought a massive group of armed soldiers and temple police to falsely arrest Jesus in the middle of the night.

When we study the Garden scene in the Gospel of John,

We read in John 18:4, Jesus therefore, knowing all things that would come upon Him, went forward and said to them, "Whom are you seeking?"

John 18:5 They answered Him, "Jesus of Nazareth." Jesus said to them, "I am He." And Judas, who betrayed Him, also stood with them.

John 18:6 Now when He said to them, "I am He," they drew back and fell to the ground. NKJV

In John 18:6, Jesus attributed the divine name of God "I AM" from Exodus 3:14, to Himself.

The Greek word recorded here for "I am" is ego eimi. It literally means, "I am" who I am, the self-existent God!

In the present tense in the Greek, Jesus is saying, "I was not created, I have always been", "I am who I am”.

As Jesus revealed that He is the same God Moses met at the burning bush, He revealed some of His Shekinah Glory to those who came to arrest Him in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Shekinah is an English transliteration of a Hebrew word meaning "dwelling" or "settling" which symbolizes the dwelling or settling of the divine presence of God.

Jesus’ Shekinah Glory is seen in the Tabernacle in Exodus, and it was the same Glory Jesus revealed to His closest followers on the Mount of Transfiguration.